Dictionary

shock and awe en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃɑk(ə)nd ˈɑ/ (cot-caught-merger)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈʃɑk(ə)nd ˈɔ/ (General-American)
• /ˈʃɒk(ə)nd ˈɔː/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Coined by American defence strategists Harlan Kenneth Ullman (born 1941) and James P. Wade, Jr., in Shock and Awe (1996): see the quotation. The term gained greater public attention during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US troops.

Meanings

1. (also, figuratively, uncountable) A doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force.
   • [The surveillance capitalists] specialize in displays of instrumentarianism’s unique brand of shock and awe, leaving onlookers dazed, uncertain, and helpless. 2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 14, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:
   • WWE and WCW gussied up the ritual with a lot of shock-and-awe pyrotechnics and the most innovative use of video graphics this side of MTV. Not so Extreme Championship Wrestling. 2006, Thomas Hackett, Slaphappy: Pride, Prejudice, and Professional Wrestling, New York, NY: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 22:
   • “This is ‘shock and awe,’” he said. “Truss, Kwarteng, and the people around them think they had to act quickly. The longer they wait, the more the resistance will build up.”. 2022 September 27, Mark Landler, quoting Jonathan Portes, “Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Photos, film, documentation of the city [Hiroshima, Japan] had been confiscated and censored almost immediately after Japan surrendered, and the only indelible image of the bombing was the power of the bomb itself: the "shock and awe" version of the mushroom cloud. 2010 August 5, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, “Hiroshima: The Lesson We Never Learned”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 24 Dec 2010:
   • To affect the will of the adversary, Rapid Dominance will apply a variety of approaches and techniques to achieve the necessary level of Shock and Awe at the appropriate strategic and military leverage points. […] Flowing from the primary concentration on affecting the adversary's will to resist through imposing a regime of Shock and Awe to achieve strategic aims and military objectives, four characteristics emerge that will define the Rapid Dominance military force. 1996, Harlan K[enneth] Ullman, James P. Wade [et al.], “Prologue”, in Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance, [Washington, D.C.]: Center for Advanced Concepts and Technology, →ISBN, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2017, page xii:
   • One expression above all others has become associated with the invasion of Iraq – "shock and awe". Developed at the Pentagon in the mid-1990s, "shock and awe" was a doctrine designed to leave the enemy so demoralised and disoriented that its will to resist crumbled. In popular parlance it has come to mean the application of overwhelming force, the effective obliteration of the enemy, and for many the term "shock and awe" has come to epitomise the crudeness of the American assault on Iraq. 2013 March 19, Richard Sanders, “The myth of ‘shock and awe’: Why the Iraqi invasion was a disaster”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2017:
   • They used the break well. England emerged sharper for the second half. Abby Dow had already seen a try wiped off for a forward pass by Kildunne, shortly before a shock-and-awe line-out drive, powered by 10 of the team and covering 22m, ended with Cokayne dotting down. 2025 September 20, Mike Henson, “Kildunne stars as England see off France to make final”, in BBC Sport:
   • The shock and awe that a human being could inspire navigating a stage with such effortless yet almost supernatural command (not for nothing did legends Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly congratulate Michael [Jackson] on his dancing) vaulted Jackson and Thriller to a new level of prominence. 2008 February 15, Ken Tucker, “‘Thriller’: Can’t Beat It”, in Entertainment Weekly, archived from the original on 23 Nov 2015:
   • In defense of moderation, he proposed simply stomping out religious radicals. (In American terms: shock and awe, rather than hearts and minds.) 2018 November 3, Hassan Hassan, “The Arab Winter Is Coming”, in The Atlantic:

Synonyms

rapid dominance

Translations (10)

fr choc et stupeur (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · ko 충격과 공포 (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · pt choque e pavor (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · fr choc et effroi (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · he הלם ומורא (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · el σοκ και δέος (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · pl doktryna szoku i przerażenia (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · ar الصدمة والترويع (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · sk šok a hrôza (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force) · es shock y pavor (doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force)

wikipedia: 2003 invasion of Iraq · wikipedia: Victory Arch

shock and awe en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃɑk(ə)nd ˈɑ/ (cot-caught-merger)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈʃɑk(ə)nd ˈɔ/ (General-American)
• /ˈʃɒk(ə)nd ˈɔː/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Coined by American defence strategists Harlan Kenneth Ullman (born 1941) and James P. Wade, Jr., in Shock and Awe (1996): see the quotation. The term gained greater public attention during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US troops.

Meanings

1. (also, figuratively) To use the "shock and awe" doctrine in an actual or potential conflict, or to otherwise use a spectacular display of force or authority.
   • He was a young soldier still in the great battle of life, not used to see his fellow-combatants drop down by his side; and he felt shocked and awed. [1877, Julia Kavanagh, chapter XXVII, in Two Lilies. A Novel, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, 549 & 551 Broadway, →OCLC, page 261:
   • [H]e descends into ferrying drugs carefully planted in carcasses from an abattoir, and is eventually trained to be a killer. The violence, when it comes, shocks and awes because the beauty of the preceding scenes has had a hypnotic hold on the viewer. 2005, Lloyd Hughes, The Rough Guide to Gangster Movies (Rough Guides Reference), London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 93:
   • The wars in Afghanistan and Iran are both fought in defense of the manliness of "America." […] President [George W.] Bush is reelected on a platform of never changing his mind, never reconsidering a decision once taken, and never worrying about what others might think or feel in relation to U.S. actions globally. Since this model of national sovereignty in the face of a foreign threat leaves little room for worrying about individual lives at home, victims of national disasters are subjected to an unimaginably callous carelessness. And the events in nature that shock and awe the senses are used as excuses for doing away with those minimal environmental protections that still constrain the fossil fuel industry. 2006, Bonnie Mann, “Conclusion”, in Women’s Liberation and the Sublime: Feminism, Postmodernism, Environment, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 176:
   • [M]ost weapon sounds (gun reports, rockets in flight, detonations, etc.) are not just big but absolutely vast, commanding attention, intimidating, shocking and aweing large populations dispersed over large areas. 2015, J. Martin Daughtry, “Sonic Campaigns”, in Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, section II (Structures of Listening, Sounding, and Emplacement), page 161:
   • It was one thing to hear talk of protests and war resistance back home, but when I saw it first hand, just a few feet from my bed, I was shocked and awed by the seriousness of some of the guys who had decided not to participate in this war anymore. 2004 March, Tony Lawless, “‘Underground’ Bunker”, in Lawless in Vietnam: A Personal Accounting of My War, Haverford, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, →ISBN, page 239:
   • That's why good strategists know when to stop shocking and awing: when to begin consolidating the benefits these strategies have provided. The classic example is Otto von Bismarck, who set new standards for shock and awe by provoking three wars—against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866, and France in 1870—all with a view to clearing the way for the unification of Germany. 2004, John Lewis Gaddis, “The Twenty-first Century”, in Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lecture on American Civilization and Government), Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, pages 101–102:

Forms

Translations (2)

pl wprowadzić w życie doktrynę szoku i przerażenia (to use the "shock and awe" doctrine) · pl wprowadzać w życie doktrynę szoku i przerażenia (to use the "shock and awe" doctrine)

wikipedia: 2003 invasion of Iraq · wikipedia: Victory Arch